Bill would mandate rivalry games between Kentucky and Louisville

A Louisville lawmaker has filed legislation that would require the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville to play each other in football and men's basketball each year.

Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, right and Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer joked with their respective schools mascots during a Leadership Louisville meeting about the importance of Lexington and Louisville cooperating on economic development on Thursday August 11, 2011 in Louisville, Ky. Photo by Mark Cornelison | Staff

A Louisville lawmaker has filed legislation that would require the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville to play each other in football and men's basketball each year.

The proposal, filed Tuesday by state Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, deals mostly with the responsibilities of university governing boards and tracking student progress. But the last page of the four-page bill would require the two schools to face each other on the football field and basketball court annually.

The proposal, which now goes to the Senate Education Committee, says that national attention brought by the rivalry benefits the state and the universities, which get the opportunity to "inform the nation of their institutional contributions to the economic and social well-being of the Commonwealth and nation."

Also, "the thousands of Kentuckians who support the two public research universities and follow their respective athletic endeavors benefit from the energy, excitement, camaraderie, goodwill, and sportsmanship that the rivalry engenders," the bill declares.